Is it illegal for one restaurant to steal another restaurants menu items word for word?

Question

Is it illegal for one restaurant to steal another restaurants menu items word for word?

Answer 1

Why would you want to don't you want your resturant to be unique?

Answer 2

you cannot patent or copyright a food item...only a name; otherwise someone could patent a hamburger, and be the only one selling them......make sense?

Answer 3

Only if they copywrited it, its illegal.

Answer 4

If the menu is copyrighted yes, if not, its ok

Answer 5

I think it is illegal if they have it patented or have a trademark deriving form it.

Answer 6

Welllllll this all depends. If its a "doublecheeburger" then anyone could use that b/c thats literally what it is. but if it's a trademark or a copyright such as a "big mac'', then you could get in trouble for using that b/c McDonalds owns in. Alot of places have special signature names for their items that you cant steal if they are trademarked or copyrighted but if they are just a general name---then its common for more than one place to have it.

Answer 7

I believe so.

Answer 8

All documents have copyright once they are written or typed into a computer.

Answer 9

Not in the US. I am quite sure there is no copyrighted menu

items.

Answer 10

it is if there is a copyright.

Answer 11

Yes, it's called plagerism.

Answer 12

technically, no. Because if they servethe exact same items then they can put the same words on there. So long as they dont use the same name/logo/design/and theme of your menus, its not illegal.

Answer 13

I doubt it. It's not like the menus are under copyright.

Answer 14

no, it happens all the time

Answer 15

Yes, there are patent rights...

Answer 16

Absolutely, it's called copyright infringement... you just have to establish which restaurant was using the menu first, which is not hard to do with the hard copy used through the graphic designer for the menu along with the receipt. As soon as the menu was presented on the tables to the public, it was copyrighted to that particular restaurant.

Answer 17

McDonalds does it all the time. If the Menu had a valid copyright on it at the time it was copied, yes then it is illegal. If there was no copyright then it's legal.

Answer 18

it should be